Chapter 8: Marcie & the Midnight Call

Abby grabs some of her bags from the car, and hands some to Susan. They walk to the apartment building entrance and to the elevator, which takes them up five stories. "So she has a kid right?" Abby asks in the elevator.

"Yeah, but he doesn't live with her. Decided to stay with his father. She has him on the weekends though," Susan tells her.

"Oh," Abby says as the elevator door opens to reveal the fifth floor. They walk down a hallway to apartment number 182. Susan knocks on the door while Abby waits next to her nervously.

For Abby, it seems like an eternity until Susan's Aunt Marcie opens the door, but finally she does, greeting them happily. "Hi Susan!" she says, going over to give her a hug. She steps away from Susan and looks at Abby. "And you must be Abby," she says.

"Yea, uh… nice to meet you," Abby says.

"Well come in!" Marcie says happily.

Abby takes a look at Marcie. She looks like Susan's mom a little, but younger; much younger. She had very short blonde hair which was sort of spiked, and was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. Abby couldn't believe Susan had such a cool aunt. Her apartment was kind of messy, the walls painted bright colors with posters all over. Marcie noticed Abby looking around. "Oh, that's just the living room. My room's a little less perky," she tells her. Abby smiles.

"I guess I should show you your room," Marcie says and leads the way to a room right across from hers. It was painted a mint green and has a twin bed with a dresser and night stand. Abby looked around it, and dropped her bags on the floor.

"I'll unpack later," she says, still looking around.

---
The way she sees it's me
On her caller ID
She won't pick up the phone
She'd rather be alone
But I can't give up just yet
Cause every word she's ever said
Is still ringin' in my head
Still ringin' in my head…

He listens to her voicemail message. He shuts the phone and throws it down onto his bed. There was no point; it wasn't like she was going to call him back anytime soon. But why? Where was Abby, and why wasn't she answering his calls?

---

Susan was going to stay the night, then head off back to Evergrove in the morning; only without Abby. After dinner, Susan and Abby help clean up the dishes then head to Abby's room to start unpacking and get ready for bed. Abby picks up her phone and realizes Carter called, again. "He called again," she says with no emotion.

Susan just looks up and says "Oh," not wanting to get into another argument about Carter again. They were both tired from the long trip to Chicago. They get on their nightclothes and Abby climbs into bed while Susan sleeps on the air mattress on the other side of the room.

Susan awoke in the middle of the night to hear Abby talking to someone. She looked up and realized she was on her cell phone. "Yeah, we are in Chicago," Pause. "Yea, but I'm gonna stay here," Pause. "I know, but things got complicated back home," Pause. "No, not cause of you," Pause. "It's just… it's complicated," Pause. "Yeah, I'll call you soon Carter," Pause. "Okay, bye." Abby hung up the phone. So she finally talked to Carter, Susan thinks happily. Susan looks back over at Abby and sees her crying. Susan sits up and asks her, "What's wrong?"

Abby responds with "I miss him, that's all."

There's a piece of you that's here with me
It's everywhere I go, it's everything I see
When I sleep, I dream and it gets me by
I can make believe that you're here tonight

That you're here tonight…

Carter lies back on his bed and looks up at the ceiling. "I just miss her, that's all," he says to himself sadly before drifting off to sleep.